Tachographs



March 30, 1965 o. cHATELAxN 3,1 76,309

TAGHOGRAPHS Filed March l5. 1962 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 March 30, 1955 o.cHATELAlN TACHOGRAPHS I5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 15. 1962 March 30,1965 o. cHATELAxN 3,176,309

TACHOGRAPHS Filed March 15, 1962 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 United States Patent O1176,31@ TACHUGRAPHS (iscar Chateiain, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzeriand,as-

signor to Zenith SA., Le lLocle, Switzeriand, a Swiss company Fiied Mar.15, 1962, Ser. No. 179,192 Claims priority, application Switzerland,Sept. 13, 1961, 10,619/61 2 Ciairns. (Si. 346-137) Tachographs forvehicles are known wherein the measuring and recording mechanisms arecarried inside a casing adapted to be itted in the dashboard of avehicle, while a cover pivotally secured to said casing carries aspeed-indicating member, together with the discs serving forspeed-recording. Said discs are driven into rotation by a clockworkmechanism rigid with the cover, so that said disc may execute onecomplete revolution in twelve or twenty-four hours, which requires theirreplacement, at least once per day.

In the case of other, more recent tachographs, the discs are arranged inbundle formation or stack and are carried along in succession under arecording stylus, so as to allow the recording or the speed of thevehicle during a succession of days, without it being necessary to openthe cover.

In certain tachographs, the bundles or stacks are formed by discsprovided with a radial slot, the breadth of which corresponds to 2&6 oftheir perimeter, and which are stacked over one another, in a mannersuch that the ridges defining the successive slots are distributed alonga helical surface. Said discs are interconnected, for instance, by aseries of tongues glued along their outer edges, each of which tonguesis cut by a blade rigid with the cover of the instrument, upon passageof the corresponding disc underneath the tracing stylus. A stop elementrigid with said blade stops the movement of each disc as soon as theline drawn by the stylus starting from one edge of its slot has reachedthe other edge.

The coupling oi such bundles with the driving means is performed, forinstance, by means of a rotary plate controlled by said driving meansand carrying on its upper surface sharp projections adapted to engagethe lowermost disc of the bundle, the length of said sharp projectionbeing at the utmost equal to the thickness of said disc. 1t is alsopossible to t the discs over a cylindrical socket rigidly secured to thelowermost disc of the bundle, said socket being then secured to aspindle of the driving movement, for instance through the agency of athreaded nut.

In the tachographs described, the bundles include a predetermined numberof discs, generally six or seven, which are adapted to carry a graph ofthe speed as measured during a corresponding number of days.

When the duration of the running period of the vehicle to be checked isshorter than that corresponding to the capacity of said bundle, say fouror iive days, the latter is used only to a partial extent. The unuseddiscs of such a bundle cannot be used easily, because their number istoo small, taking into account the length of the travel to be checked.Furthermore, the execution of bundles of such a type requires acomparatively long time and their cost price is comparatively high.

The present invention has now for its object a recording arrangement fora tachograph on a vehicle, which removes the above-referred to drawbacksand includes a bundle constituted by a stack of annular discscorresponding each to a predetermined time of recording, said discs areprovided with a radial slot and are stacked in a manner such that theridges of the successive slots may follow one another along a helicalpath. Said discs are driven into rotation in unison under at least onetracing member and further means cut ofi the movement of the discs insuccession each time said tracing member has drawn a line connecting therear edge of the slot in a disc with the front edge of said slot,whereby a continuous line is obtained over the complete bundle.According to the invention, the driving means engage said discs throughat least a fraction of their surfaces, while means are provided forreleasing in succession each disc with reference to the driving means,at least as soon as its rotary movement is stopped.

The accompanying drawings illustrate, by way of example, a preferredembodiment of the improved tachograph according to the invention,together with modifications thereof in said drawings:

FIG. 1 is a plan view, in an open position, of the tachograph.

FIG. 2 is a cross-section through line II-II of FIG. l.

FlG. 3 is a cross-section through line III-III of FIG. 2.

FIGS. 4 to 8 are detail views ofthe disc stacking means.

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary plan view ot another embodiment of a tachographdevice according to the invention.

The tachograph illustrated (FIGS. l and 2) includes a casing 1 to whichis pivotally secured at 2 a cover 3. Inside the casing are carriedtracing styluses 4, 5, and 6, the ends of which project through a slot7, for the recording of the speed of progression of the vehicle, of thedistance travelled over and of the duration of the running and stoppingperiods of the vehicle. These styluses are shifted in a conventionalmanner by means carried by the casing and which are not illustrated. Tothe cover are secured a small blade 8, and a selecting member 9 providedwith a stop 10 together with a clockwork, not illustrated, which isadapted to drive, under the tips of the styluses 4, S and 6, a bundle 11of graph-carrying discs. The bundle 11 illustrated in FIG. 2, includessix stacked discs provided each with a radial slot, the maximum breadthof which is equal to 2/26 of the disc periphery.

The upper surface of each disc is subdivided by lines which are notillustrated into twenty-four equal sectors corresponding each to onehour of the day, and carrying each a series of equidistant concentriccircles corresponding each to a predetermined speed, said speedincreasing from one circle to the next by say ten miles per hour.

The central section of each disc is provided with a circular opening 13(FIG. 6) while a tongue or projection 14 projects inwardly of the edgeof the opening.

The bundle 11 formed by the superposed discs is tted over a socket 15,of which the outer surface is provided with longitudinal corrugations16; the outer diameter of said socket and the shape of the corrugationsmatch the diameter of the central opening and the shape of the tongue ineach disc.

The discs forming the bundle are positioned in a manner such that whensuperposed the edges of their radial slots 12 follow one another along ahelical surface. To this end, the tongues 14 of the diierent discs areinserted in different successive grooves of the socket at the rate ofone tongue for each groove, in a sequence corresponding to the locationof the discs in the bundle. The lowermost disc of the bundle isfurthermore rigidly secured to a metal ring 17, for instance through theagency of an adhesive annulus 18 itted over a bearing surface of thesocket 15.

Said socket 15 is fitted over a vertical sleeve 19 rigid with a circularplate 2) driven into rotation by the clockwork movement provided for thetachograph, the bundle 1 resting on said plate. Said plate is providedwith sharp projections 21 intended more particularly for the securing ofa single disc. The securing of the system inclu-ding the socket 15, thering 17 and :the bundle 11 on the plate is provided through a clampingaction exerted by a nut 22 screwed over lthe upper threaded section 23of the sleeve 19. n

In the modification illust-rated in FIG. 4, the socket is slightlyfrusto-conical, whereas, in the case of FlG. 5, the socket 15, `and thering 17 are replaced by a single member including a sleeve 24 providedwith an outwardly toothed lower iiange 25 and with corrugations similarto those of the socket 15. In accordance with another modiiioationillustrated in FIG. 7, the central `opening of the discs may be providedwith as many projections or tongues as there are corruga-tions orrecesses. FIG. 8 shows said projections.

At the beginning of the opera-tion, with a fresh bundle, the discs lieunderneath the selecting member 9 constituted, for instance, -by anelast-ic blade secured to the cover :and the free end of which bearsagainst the upper surface yof the uppermost disc of the bundle. Saidbundle is driven into rotation in the direction of the arrow F, asalready described 'and the styluses 4, 5 and 6 record on the uppersurface of said uppermost disc graphs corresponding to the magnitudesmeasured by lthe means carried inside the casing 1.

Before said uppermost disc has been shifted by an angle corresponding to24/26 of a revolution yof the driving sleeve 19, and before the linedrawn -by the styluses has connected the two edges of the radial slot 12the edge yof the disc dening said slot and which is slightly raised overthe plane of .the remainder of the disc surface, meets the selectedlmember 9. The latter engages the underside of said edge so that thedisc continues its rotary movement over said blade until it meets thestop lil which is rigid with the latter.

As soon .as the disc is held tast, the tongue 14 on its inner peripherybegins being torn or creased, since the spindle 19 `and the socket 15continue their rotary movement: the disc is thus released with referenceto the remainder of the bundle.

S-aid cycle of operations is .repeated in a similar manner once dailywith all the discs, land the discs provided with their record or graphengage each in their turn the tongue 9, While raising the precedinglyreleased disc. With `such a tachograph, it is possible to producebundles yof ldiscs for any predetermined duration of a checkingoperation, and it is also possible .to recover any unused disc forfurther operation with other Idiscs during an ulterior travel.

According to a modification, the lowermo-st disc rigid with the metalring 17, is advantageously thicker than the other discs of the bundleand carries preferably no reference lines forming a system ofcoordinates, said disc serving then only las a support.

In a second embodiment which is not illustrated, the discs are notstacked and tted over a corrugated socket .as precedingly described,b-ut they .are fitted directly over Ia sleeve `similar to the sleeve 19,the outer surface of which is provided with the corrugations requiredfor the positioning of the records in the bundle land for their drive.

In 4a third embodiment, which is not illustrated, the plate 20 may -begiven a size slightly larger than that of the disc and be provided alongits periphery with an upstanding flange 20a forming with the body of theplate a cylindrical dished member, the depth of which is at least equalto the thickness of a bundle of discs. The latter are with a centralopening 13a and radial slots lZa and provided along their outer edgeswith one or more projections Mb engaging corresponding corrugations orrecesses 16a formed in the inner surface of said upstanding iiange, soas to be carried along sdireotly into rotation.

In such a case, the sleeve 19 need not be corrugated but merely threadedso as to engage the nut 22.

In further modications which are not illustra-ted, the corrugations orrecesses may show only la limited height corresponding for inst-ance tothe thickness of the bundle or stack and the tachograph may include atongue rigid for instance with the small blade S extending in thevicinity of said corrugations and adapted to raise each successive discas it moves towards the graph-drawing styluses and to release thus theprojections on said disc with reference to the corrugations engagingsaid projections.

What I claim is:

l. In a tachognaph for a vehicle, at least one recording member, aplurality of annular dis-cs alike in configuration disposed in operationof Ithe tachograph in a stacked condition and rotationally driven torrecording thereon with said recording member on the individual discssuccessively, each of said discs having a radial slot and a radialprojection extending inwardly `and made `of a material which iscrushable and tearable, rotary driven sleeve means having recessesengageable with the individual radial projections on said discs forrotationally driving the discs without interconnect-ion with each otherand disposed in a stacked conidition vwith the slots 4of the successivediscs being disposed substantially defining a helical surface disposednadially outward-ly of a ylongitudinal axis of rotation of said discs,means for causing decoupling, or" the discs individually andsuccessively from said rotary driven sleeve means .and for causing .theindividual discs to be individually land successively in position forrecording thereon with said recording member including stationary meansdisposed to engage the discs successively by engaging an edge of theindividual slots of the discs upon completion -of one revolution of theindividual discs to stop the individual discs `and cause said radialprojection to be creased or torn .and thereby disengaged :from saidrotary driven ysleeve means.

2. In a tachognaph for a vehicle according -to claim l, in which saidrecesses on said sleeve means comprises a plunality of radially inwardlyextending recesses extending longitudinally of said sleeve means andangularly spaced thereon an angular distance to cause said edges to bedisposed in said helical surface when each recess receives Ia radialprojection of a respective disc therein.

References Cited by the Examiner Ser. No. 352,111, Fornbacher V(A.P.C.),published May 25, 1943.

LEO SMILOW, Primary Examiner.

LEYLAND M. MARTIN, Examiner,

1. IN A TACHOGRAPH FOR A VEHICLE, AT LEAST ONE RECORDING MEMBER, APLURALITY OF ANNULAR DISCS ALIKE IN CONFIGURATION DISPOSED IN OPERATIONOF THE TACHOGRAPH IN A STACKED CONDITION AND ROTATIONALLY DRIVEN FORRECORDING THEREON WITH SAID RECORDING MEMBER ON THE INDIVIDUAL DISCSSUCCESSIVELY, EACH OF SAID DISCS HAVING A RADIAL SLOT AND A RADIALPROJECTION EXTENDING INWARDLY AND MADE OF A MATERIAL WHICH IS CRUSHABLEAND TEARABLE, ROTARY DRIVEN SLEEVE MEANS HAVING RECESSES ENGAGEABLE WITHTHE INDIVIDUAL RADIAL PROJECTIONS ON SAID DISCS FOR ROTATIONALLY DRIVINGTHE DISCS WITHOUT INTERCONNECTION WITH EACH OTHER AND DISPOSED IN ASTACKED CONDITION WITH THE SLOTS OF THE SUCCESSIVE DISCS BEING DISPOSEDSUBSTANTIALLY DEFINING A